Beloved Tyrant - Chapter 11

“Erin. You don’t have to raise a dog. There’s already one big guy.”

A couple more sips of wine made my face hot.

I laughed too.

It was always easy to laugh.

Tristan crawled next to Aurest’s sofa and stopped.

Aurest rolled his feet in the light. When the broken glass was stepped on the shoe, it splashed and smashed. Small pieces of broken glass sparkled thinly.

“I need a footrest. More come.”

Tristan, lying down, raised his head and looked up at me.

His black eyes did not blame me, nor did he hate me or resent me. He was just staring at me with his pure, deep eyes, as if asking permission.1

I couldn’t bear it.

The glass was refilled to avoid Tristan’s gaze.

“What are you doing? Listen to my brother.”

Tristan dropped his head and took a step forward. I almost screamed. Tristan’s shoulders were flapping. Under the shertz, the affected muscles were pulled and inflated with pain.

“Tristan has always been extraordinary since he was a child. He didn’t scream once, even if he got hit in the back with a nine-pronged whip.” Aurest said with great equanimously, I said it over a glass of wine.

“… He looks like an ascetic.” (Erin)

Tristan clenched his teeth and went on. His waist flinched with pain. A pent-up new note came out of his tightly shut mouth and stopped. I wanted to close my eyes if I could. I just wanted to yell, ‘Get up right now’. But I couldn’t because Aurest’s gaze was fixed on me, not on Tristan. Tristan stopped at the foot of Aurest. Aurest stretched his legs up on Tristan’s back lying down.

“Erin. What did I tell you? I said it would be fun, right?”

I shifted the gaze I had fixed on Tristan. The Crown Prince was laughing and giggling.

“I know. It’s really…”

I laughed too. As always, it was always easy to laugh.

“…really fun.”

***

Aurest, who said he had to go soon, stayed for another hour. Until now, Tristan had carried out a noble mission of receiving the crown prince’s feet. Before I knew it, the wine had bottomed out. I could see a couple of drops fell down even when I tilted it vertically. The Crown Prince has an appetite.

“You’ve delayed too much time. I’ll go.”

“Oh! I’ll see you off.”

The yellowish late afternoon sun was pouring through the window into the hallway.

Aurest, who had been walking earlier, stopped. He turned and pulled my arm and kissed me on the cheek. He muttered and smelled of wine.

“I certainly don’t want to go.”

I stepped back a little.

“But you still have to go. Because you’re busy,..”

Aurest came as close as he leaned down and fidgeted with my hair. As he rubbed his nose in my hair, he blurted out.2

Are you certain that Tristan, who has come to know everything, won’t count on you?’

×××

[1] If he had gone back, I should have known better. ‘Let’s enjoy some fun and entertaining play.’ He’ve been doing that! Don’t you feel any pain?: This is really confusing at first… It means if Aurest come back, he’ll say they’ll watch something fun again which is torturing someone, that’s why when Tristan didn’t even cried because of the pain, Erin was enraged (as because he is acting like a stone) and that’s why she’s asking him if he can’t feel pain…1

[2] I had no obligation to comfort myself: It means she had no rights to ask something just because she was uncomfortable.